Administration of epidural anesthesia through a continuous procedure is widely used as a form of regional anesthesia for patient pain management. In such procedures, anesthesia drugs are injected into the epidural space through a catheter. During such continuous epidural anesthesia procedures, the patient may also have an intravenous line to receive other medications. Errors in delivering medication can occur when anesthesia drugs are introduced into an intravenous line or other types of medications are introduced to epidural space. Such errors may cause permanent damage to patients. Studies have shown that medication error rate for erroneously delivered anesthesia ranges from 0.1% to as high as 0.75% (see Stabile, M. et al., “Medical Administration in Anesthesia,” Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Newsletter, Vol. 22, No. 3, (2007)).
Previous attempts at reducing errors in drug delivery include the use of labels or color coded devices to differentiate specific route-accessing devices (e.g., catheter connectors) and containers that contain medication (e.g., syringe and IV bags). Studies have shown that clinicians tend to ignore these labels and color codes. Other attempts to reduce error have required additional components that can be cumbersome for attachment. The use of additional components has also required the use of specialized syringe and/or catheter connections. Some configurations also preclude the use of filters and other safety components typically used during the administration of epidural anesthesia.
Accordingly, there is a need for a drug delivery system that can effectively (and physically) eliminate wrong-route medication error possibilities for use in all types of epidural anesthesia administration procedures that do not also require the use of additional and specialized components.